With short days, long nights and cold weather keeping you indoors, gardening can bring a mood-boosting touch of nature into your space.
As fall turns into winter and the leaves and temperatures drop, it's no surprise that your mood can follow you. With the short days, lack of sunlight, and not being able to spend much time outdoors (depending on where you live), many people feel overwhelmed or just not their usual selves this time of year.
This phenomenon is known as seasonal affective disorder (also known as SAD) and can last for four to five months. SAD has been part of the mental health conversation for years, but has gained more attention since the pandemic and the rise of TikTok. Bisma Anwar, a New York-based licensed mental health counselor, is leading a panel discussion on disorders before COVID-19, but has noticed an increase in discussions about SAD.
Anwar said symptoms include changes in sleep patterns, problems with appetite, feelings of loneliness and isolation, and feelings of helplessness.
Whether you're feeling ALONE right now or you get the winter blues every year, it's never a bad idea to take care of yourself when you're feeling down. If you're looking for an easy and inexpensive way to calm down, try planting a few trees or starting an indoor garden—studies show that greenery can improve our mood and have other positive effects.
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In 2019, Melinda Knuth, an assistant professor at the North Carolina Department of Horticulture, and a colleague published an updated review summarizing the various effects of plants on humans. They reviewed existing research on mental and emotional health benefits over the past 10 years, totaling nearly 2,500 articles and nine months of work.
"We talked about how being around plants can help reduce the stress hormone cortisol," says Knuth. "We don't get this subconscious benefit when [we're] around them, but just looking at a picture of a tree can help lower blood pressure and heart rate, which is amazing."
The reason for this goes back to evolution: Humans have relied on plants for food, protection and fuel since time immemorial, Knuth points out, and we have an innate relationship with them. So in today's world (where we're a bit further from nature than we were in hunter-gatherer times), houseplant care or indoor gardening gives us that connection. Just as a walk or hike outdoors calms us, so does the feeling when you bring nature into your home.
It's also self-care: taking time to be mindful and do things you enjoy that help you relax will almost always lift your spirits. Even if you don't consider yourself a plant person, there are many benefits to using one as part of your skincare routine.
"There's something innate in people to worry about something, and it can be a very visceral experience, a very conscious experience, and it can help you feel like a routine," Anwar said. “Look outside, it's very lonely now [in winter]. Plants, leaves, everything is gone. But when you have plants in your house, you're still in touch with this picturesque nature, the greenery and everything, and that's a very good feeling that we feel."
Anwar says self-care can also act as a form of distraction, helping you distract yourself from negative thoughts and feelings. In a SAD video on her TikTok, Terappuccino gives a personal example of how she uses her love of coffee in these ways: trying new flavors, making cappuccinos, and generally becoming more involved in her daily coffee ritual. She recommends journaling and meditating for at least five minutes a day to stay in the present moment.
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If you've never had a real plant or feel stressed about the care process, start with one or two; Once you get into a routine, you can always add to your collection. Knuth recommends growing pothos or snake plants because they can survive in low light conditions. If your home has enough natural light, plant flowering plants such as orchids, bromeliads, petunias or amaryllis, as they can have a greater impact on your mental health. Artificial plants also have an effect.
"It's almost like going back to nature," says Knuth. “In my opinion, we have to stay here for health reasons because we're in this created environment. This is why we see these subconscious health effects without realizing it. The fact that [the factories] are close together can help us.”
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